Existing “cookie” technology enables accurate measurement of the number of unique web page views and click-throughs. Cookies are small text files created and subsequently read by Internet browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome. The browser sends an existing cookie (represented as a name/value pair) along with a web page request to a web server. If the cookie does not already exist on the browser, the web server can use a browser's cookie facility to set a cookie and store data therein. A web server might store information related to a user's Internet activities such as, an access date, domain name, customer type, and activity type.
Cookies can be stored on a user's computer and are used by advertisers, publishers and ad servers to enhance the user experience in their respective areas. For example, publishers may use the cookie data to store login and customization information. Advertisers may use the data for personal preferences and site optimization information and ad servers would use the data for geo-location and ad rotation information. Advertisers generally have a cookie methodology based on site management/e-commerce/optimization/customer relationship management (CRM) vendors they use. The cookies are set based on the specifications from those vendors.